Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

y big businesses for allowing them to harm natural resources. Recently, the United States opened the
Gulf of Mexico back up for more drilling of oil. Astoundingly enough, a top contender for the oil is BP
whose negligence led to the disastrous spill. As the American government resorted to Corporatocracy, it
neglects to provide for the welfare of the ecosystem.
Although the government resorted to Corporatocracy, the larger issue at the time was the impact
on human rights that the oil spill created. When the spill occurred in mid-April, the ecosystem was
immediately affected by the large amounts of oil being dumped into the Gulf. With the ecosystem
beginning to be exterminated by the oil, it posed as a huge detriment to the present and future generations
that live off of supplies from the Gulf because the ecosystem was no longer edible or sustainable.
However, the greater impact the spill continues to effect was the number of job losses. Every man
has the human right to work in society and make a living for him and his family. Yet, when the Gulf Spill
occurred, the right of work was in jeopardy due to the threat on the ecosystem. With the BP oil spill, the
rights of life all humans‘ possess were at risk due to the international corporations inadequate emergency
response.
Another conservation topic that involves the justification of human rights, is Josh Fox‘s
documentary, Gasland. In 2005, President Bush signed the Energy Bill, which Vice President Chaney had
pushed through Congress, exempting all oil and natural gas industries from dozens of Environmental
Protection Agencies and Democratic laws, such as Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Air Act to name a
few (GASLAND). Once Bush signed the Energy Bill, oil companies immediately began to buy or lease
land that contain large amounts of natural gas and use Halliburton technology to extract such gas.
In the documentary, Fox travels across the United States divulging the truth about Hydraulic
fracturing, or most notably known as, fracking. Fracking ―is a means of natural gas extraction employed
in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary
chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open
fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well‖ (GASLAND). During the process of
fracking, natural gases are not only emitted into the drilled well, but also the drinking water aquifers
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